For Immediate Release: March 13, 2024
Contact: Audrey Sandusky, asandusky@nfprha.org
Fifth Circuit Ruling Continues to Undermine Minors’ Access to Health Care in Texas
Washington, DC -- Yesterday, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling in Deanda v. Becerra, a challenge against the Title X family planning program’s well-established statutory protection of minors’ ability to seek contraceptive care without parental consent. Yesterday’s ruling affirms in part a district court ruling that the Title X statute’s confidentiality protections do not preempt Texas’s parental consent law. However, in a win for the Title X program, the appellate court reversed part of the district court’s ruling which had vacated language in the 2021 Title X rule formalizing Title X’s longstanding prohibition on parental consent and notification. The court also declined to rule as to whether the 2021 rule preempts Texas’s law. Minors in Texas have been unable to access contraception without parental consent for more than a year since the district court ruling. In response to the decision, the following is a statement from Clare Coleman, President & CEO of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA).
“The plaintiff's claim has never been about protecting young people. Instead, it is a strategic move to curtail people’s reproductive rights and control of their bodies. Despite decades of practice and legal precedent, yesterday’s decision claims that Title X’s promise of minors’ access to essential health care without parental consent somehow does not conflict with Texas law requiring parental consent for those services. That claim is wrong.
“We are saddened that yesterday’s ruling seeks to keep in place dangerous barriers to care for young people across Texas who need prescription contraception and information from their trusted Title X provider. The right to confidential care is particularly important for Black, Latino, Indigenous and other people of color, people with low incomes, and rural communities who are disproportionately targeted by harmful barriers to health care and experience difficulties accessing birth control.
“We are relieved that yesterday’s ruling keeps in place confidentiality protections under the Biden administration’s 2021 rule that guarantees access to confidential care and counseling to all people in need of care, including adolescents. Young people should have the care, support, and information they need to make important decisions about their sexual health from family planning providers committed to their patients’ health and safety.”
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NFPRHA is a membership organization representing publicly funded family planning providers and administrators nationwide. NFPRHA advances and elevates the importance of family planning in the nation’s health care system and promotes and supports the work of family planning providers and administrators, especially those in the safety net. For more information, visit nationalfamilyplanning.org.